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How SaaS B2B Ecommerce Platform Can Benefit Or Harm Your Business?

Do you know Software-as-a-service ecommerce platforms are gaining the market share?

As the name suggests, SaaS is a way to facilitate centrally hosted applications online as service. Retailers don’t need to buy physical version of software, as they used to, for installation. As long as you have Wi-Fi, you can access the SaaS B2B ecommerce solution from anywhere anytime. Shopify, BigCommerce and Volusion are B2B platform examples.

Clearly, they offer numerous benefits, yet also come with some limitations for B2B companies.

Pros of SaaS B2B Platforms

With B2B ecommerce solution, retailers get a chance to setup their ecommercesite easily and run their B2B business with minimal effort. It’s like a walk in a park for them, with pre-built layouts and mobile-responsive themes. Even they can implement it without any help of developer at all.

Most of B2B ecommerce solutions charge less than $100 per month, or even less. However, depending on your business needs, this monthly fee could increase as much as you put add-ons. Yet, the overall entry cost or initial investment is low.

Hosting is included in case of B2B ecommerce solutions. Neither, they require you to find any hosting solution, nor you need to mess with getting it frame-up.

When B2B companies take credit cards, it is essential for them to be PCI compliant. A B2B wholesale ecommerce solution can also manage security. It doesn’t mean retailers have no work to do. The B2B ecommerce solution minimizes and simplifies the PCI compliance.

Every now and then, top B2B platforms release their new features which get updated automatically, without any need to upgrade coding.

Cons of SaaS B2B Platforms

Like anything, it also has its disadvantages.

In general, carts are limited for shopping purpose and not much. Some of the top B2B platforms offer blog functionality, but beyond that they don’t offer content management feature to B2B companies.

Retailers don’t own the solution. They need to pay monthly charges, else their site is gone. Those businesses that cannot risk such situation and covet to own their code should seek for some other solution.

Employing several add-ons can harm your site by slowing its loading time, thus impact performance and usability.

Verdict

Before you move on in choosing a tool, nail down your business requirements and your goals. List down what tasks you want to accomplish using B2B ecommerce solution. Plus, what features you would like to see in a solution. Prompt to do B2B ecommerce platform comparison, discuss pros and cons for each and then take a decision.